The Guardian from London, Greater London, England • 8

8 THE MANCHESTER GUARDIAN, FRIDAY, JANUARY 16, 1931 COURT PERSONAL count for nothing. They might as well be disfranchised. Under the present OUR LONDON CORRESPONDENCE GAS and ELECTRIC FIRES, OIL HEATING STOVES. TILE FIREPLACES, and every appliance for WARMTH and COMFORT. BAXENDALE Miller St.

Thona City 5900 Udm). ence and urging that the general disarmament conference should be organised to ensure equality between the delegations. (.) Belgium's only concession in China, that at Tientsin, was formally restored a it y-t, is a member of the International Broadcasting Union, that she took an active part in the Conference called at Prague in 1928 to regulate the chaos in the ether and apportion wave-lengths for all Europe, and that so far as "interference" is concerned she suffers quite as much from the technical deficiencies of some of her BY PRIVATE W1KE. thirteen months of twenty-eight days each. There are various methods of doing this.

Under one schema which has been discussed at Geneva every month would begin on Sunday and end on the fourth Saturday thereafter. The new, or intercalated, month would be placed before June and July and known as Sol. There would be an extra day every year and two every leap year. The extra dav would be a holiday falling between Saturday and Sunday between the last day of the year arid the first of January. Part of this calendar reform controversy is the long-vexed question of a fixed date for Easter, on which a special committee of the League has been set up.

Some years ago the League got together representatives of the Anglican, the Roman Catholic, and the Gieek churches to discuss it in achievement in itself and there was a surprising absence of theological bitterness on a matter which has divided Christendom. The date favoured by some is the Sunday after tbe second Saturday in April. The Irish Trade Commissioner Mr. W. Peters, the Trade Commissioner for the United Kingdom in the Irish Free State, is in London, and system they might, when added together, even be a majority of the whole country and still count for nothing.

It is remarkable that an electoral system which may, in effect, disfranchise more than half the electorate should find any defenders in a supposedly democratic country. It is still more remarkable when one reflects that in Proportional Representation there is a system to hand which would give every vote the same weight, so that nobody need fear that his vote would be wasted and everybody would feel that his vote counted for something. The gravest defects 'of the present system would not be toughed by the alternative vote. But it might provide a good starting-off point for morecomprehensive reforms. It would retain the essentials of the present system, but would make it less liable to grotesque misrepresentation of popular desires.

A Critical Decision The cotton trade is not to gain peace easily. The General Council of the Weavers' Amalgamation yesterday declined to commit itself to a decision in favour of the resumption of negotiations on the "more looms" system, and has fallen back on a ballot vote of the members. A ballot is bound to take some days, and the employers are faced to-day with the alternatives of staying their hands until the rank and file of the weavers have been consulted or of letting the look-out notices expire at noon to-morrow. The latter jilterna-tive is hardly thinkable. A settlement bv negotiation, with as little dislocation of the trade as possible, is what everyone desires.

Even if the cost is the continuance of the Burnley lock-out for another week there is nothing to be gained by a demonstration of support which penalises everybody. To insist on closing the mills on Monday would probably destroy what chances there may be and one cannot count too surely on them that thr weavers' ballot will go in favour of negotiations. Things are bad enough as it is without adding a fresh complication and a deeper source of bitterness. The side that makes generous allowance for the difficulties of the other will strengthen rather than weaken its case, if it believes that its case is right in the long run. Lancashire weavers are not the kind of people who respond cheerfully to the big stick, and the union leaders who are trying to rescue them from the consequences of their instinctive fears and prejudices deserve all the help that can be given.

Australia's Finances With the return of Mr. Scullin to Australia, the barometer seems to be set fair for a period of financial sanity. The Premiers and Treasurers of the respective States though New South Wales still holds aloof are meeting together not to pass pious resolutions but to hammer out a definite three years plan to see the ship of State into clear water, well away from the financial reefs through which it has been sailing of late. Two of these reefs call for particular comment. Bonds to the value of 28,000,000 fall due for repayment this year.

Fearing that the moment was not propitious for borrowing, the left wing of the Labour party wanted to make the bondholders wait an extra year for their money. Mr. Lyons, Acting Treasurer for the Commonwealth, insisted on punctual repayment, and his policy was justified by the over-Subscription of the loan raised, entirely in Australia, to meet the bonds due, and by the resulting improvement of national credit. That rock needed only sound seamanship to avoid. A far more insidious reef was charted by Sir Otto Niemeyer in his celebrated report on Australian finances.

Partly by a policy of public works which proved less remunerative than was expected, partly by stiff protective tariffs, successive Governments had raised the costs both of living and of production to an excessive height. (The high wage-level, which is often blamed for Australia's financial plight, was as much caused by the increased cost of living as the cause of it.) As aresult the exporting industries found it more and more difficult to compete in the world's markets, so that the national revenue fell below expecta tions, while the purchasing power of the Australian pound steadily declined, and the exchange rate from Australian into English money steadily rose, until to-day 119 of Australian money is exchanged for 100 of English. Luckily for Australia, she has no external loans to pay off for two years a breathing space for which the devisers of the three years plan must be extremely grateful. Their task is first to ensure the balancing df the Federal Budget; second, so to reduce costs of production that their exporters can hold their own in the world markets. If they can steer clear of further tariff temptations they should be able' to accomplish it.

The Soviets afld the Ether There is apparently no end to Bolshevik machinations in the minds of the credulous. Trespass an the ether is fee latest of tie outrages attributed to the Soviet Government, and the charge -is sufficiently widespread to draw from Moscow to-day a formal denial of guilt From the seriousness with which this treats "reports circulated in the foreign press" it would seem that a considerable proportion of European listeners are apt to mistake atmospherics for the voice of Sfalin and confuse the effects of a run-down battery with the sinister designs the "International. Moscow points out with dignity, apd some petulance, ttoSuila MR. a. J.

COOK DELAYS HIS DECISION Mr. Cook was visited yesterday by another specialist, who advised amputation of a leg, but Mr. Cook has not yet given his consent to the operation. MR. PRIESTLEY'S AMERICAN TOUR Mr.

J. B. Priestley is sailing to America on February, 11 by the Olympic. He will give a series of lectures and readings there, and will afterwards go on with Mrs. Priestley to Tahiti and other islands, returning to San Franoiseo, and after a week at Hollywood he will begin his return journey through Canada.

This will.be his first visit to America, where his "Good Companions' and "Angel Pavement" are known to hundreds of thousands of readers. He is bum of a great recaption in that hospitable land. Mr. Priestley's success has come very suddenlv, for until the publication of the Good Companions in 1928 he was hardly known to the general public, although he had published a number of books that had established his reputation among literary people. He is in his 37th year, and looks younger.

He was born in Bradford, son of a schoolmaster, and before joining up in 191 for the Great "War he had ambitions to be a professional footballer. After the war he took his degree, at Cambridge, and worked for some time with Mr. J. C. Squire on the "London Mercury." SIR HARRY McGOWAN Sir Hany Duncan MoGowan, the new chairman of Imperial Chemical Industries, has been elected to succeed the late Lord Melchett as president of the Society of Chemical Industry.

Sir Harry, who closely shaTed Lord Melchett's interest in every phase of the chemist's work in the sphere of industry, Avill therefore preside over the jubilee celebrations of the society to be held in London this year. SPORTS STARS TO MARRY It is announoed that Miss Gwenn Sterry, the international lawn tennis player, is to marry Mr. William Maxwell Simmers, the Scottish international Rugby footballer. Miss Sterry has represented England at lawn tennis and has frequently partnered Miss Betty Nuthall in doubles. Mr.

Simmers has represented his- country in every international match since 1927. Miss Sterry stated yesterday: "I went with my brother to see the France v. Scotland Rugby match in Paris last year. Mr. Simmers was playing, and we were introduced.

We expect to be married early next year and shall live in Glasgow. Will my marriage mean giving up tennis? Oh, no; I expect to play in the Scottish championships, and may also play in some in the South of England. Mr. Simmers plays lawn tennis a little. He partnered me at a tournament in Belgium last year." Miss Sterry ia the only daughter of Mr.

and Mrs. Alfred Sterry, of Braernar, Surbitdn Hill, Surjrey, and Mr. SimmerB Is the only Bon of Mr. and Mrs. S.

Easton Simmers, of Westbourne Gardens, Glasgow. Mr. J. D. Clinch, the well-known Irish Rugby international and son of Dr.

A. D. Clinch, medical inspector to the Irish Free State Local Government Department, was married quietly in the Church of Assumption, Dalkey, County Dublin, yesterday to Mias Kita Deignan, daughter of a retired district inspector of the R.I.C. Mr. James Farrell, another Irish international player, was best man.

ACTOR AND ARTIST Sir Johnston Forbes -Robertson, who in 73 to-day, became an actor almost by accident, for hig first love was painting, and he was studying at a famous ait school when an invitation to play in "Mary Stuart," in which an actor cast for a part had proved a failure, gave him a chance tD discover his true vocation. He has never ceased to paint, however, and many fine portraits of fellow-players hear witness to his talent. The first time he played with Ellen Terry, when she was still a youncr woman and he a mere lad, he was so struck by her beauty that he begged her to let let him paint her portrait. She consented, and to the delight of both the picture was accepted for the Royal Academy. Since his retirement from the scene of so many triumphs Sir Johnston's chief delight haB been witnessing the remarkable success of his daughter Jean, who has inherited his genius, with a strong individual talent of her own.

The facial likeness between father and daughter is remarkable. On the stage her voice and gestures recall vivid memories of Sir Johnston at the height of his powers. SIR FRANCIS JOSEPH Sir Francis Joseph, who has been described as the greatest unpaid "commercial traveller the pottery industry has ever had, is to have some recognition of hn great services to North Staffordshire to-night, when he and Lady Joseph, will be entertained to dinner at Stoke-on-Trent by the British Pottery Manufacturers' Federation and the North Staffordshire Chamber of Commerce. Sir Francis and Lady Joseph will be presented with their portraits. Sir Francis's services tr thm pottery industry are the more remarkable as he is not a pottery manufacturer and has no financial interest in the industry.

He did valuable work in South Africa recently as a member of the Government Economic Mission, and he conceived the idea of and directed the great celebrations held in the Potteries last May to commemorate the bicentenary of Josiah Wedgwood. HUNTING-COATS IN WEST END For the first time the United Hunt Ball was held in London last night, and pink coats were in the majority among the men in the ballroom of the Savoy Hotel. -Partiea attended from almost every hunt in the country, and many masters were among those present. The hunts 'represented' included Whaddon Chase, the Brocklesby, Lord Leconfield's, the Bads worth, the Hertfordshire, the Berks and Bucks Staghounds. the Berkeley, the Grafton, the Bath and West Wilts, the Cleveland, the East Essex, the Criven, the CambaBe8hire Harriers, the Mid-Kent Staghounds.

the High Peak Harriers, the South Herts Beagles, the' Eridge, and the Rufford. Mr. Lloyd George, who will he 68 to-morrow, is to celebrate his birthday at" Churt, where he will spend the week-end looking over his farm. A dihner in honour of Professor Einstein was given by Charles ChaDlin at hi sa. at Hollywood on Wednesday nio-hf film celebrities were among the guests.

Two women out df a total entry of nearly 600 candidates have passed' the 'final examination of the Institute nf Accountants. They are Miss K. Laudfer, LONDON, Thursday Night. The Education Secret Nothing has come to light to-day concernins Sir Charles Trevelyan's modified proposals to yesterday's conference for the settlement of the denominational school question. Every body who knows is as mute as a fish, to quote the French saying.

But one does know that the Free Churches are very apprehensive, and it is hard to understand why they should be as disturbed as they undoubtedly are if the proposals were "considerably amended." They could hardly have been considerably amended in the interests of the Roman Catholics that was not possible. The amendment must have been in the opposite direction. And yet the Free Churches are talking of a great campaign in the country. There is to be a meeting of the Free Church Council early next week, and it is possible that the four great denominations may form a campaign council. Is it that the Free Churches are afraid that Sir Charles Trevelyan may try to drive his "settlement" through Parliament, and that they want to insure, against that contingency by rousing Nonconformity in the country and the Liberal party in the House 1 Some highly responsible people say the fear is remote.

They consider the Education Bill is dead and that Sir Charles Trevelyan is the most ill-starred of Education Ministers. But the Free Church leaders cannot think so, for they are busy invoking the aid of the Liberal Parliamentary party. There is another perplexing point. Whatever else is in doubt it is manifest that the proposals, even though considerably amended," are obnoxious to the Free Churches. If they are so distasteful why did they accept the pledge to keep them secret It is all very puzzling Motorists and Stationary Trams Lord Ponsonby is to preside on January 522 over a confeience called by the Transport Ministry to consider all the suggestions that have been pouring in from road-users, public and private, since the draft Highway Code was issued.

A point which will be urged on behalf of the tramway undertakings is one in which the Pedestrians' Association both here and in Manchester are interested. This is the necessity of some regulation requiring motorists to draw up when passing ttationary tvamcars. I hear that Mr. Pilcher, the manager ot the Manchester Transport Department, who is the president of the Municipal Tramways and Transport Association, has been appointed, with the manager of the Glasgow Tramways, to attend the conference as representing that body, and to press for the adoption of a bylaw 011 these lines throughout tlie country. Several Scottish cities have a by-law already which requires drivers of motors, when approaching 011 the left or near side of a tram halted at a stopping-place, to draw up until the roadway is clear of passengers entering or leaving the car.

The 'view of tho Glasgow authorities is that this rule has reduced or prevented accidents to peiple getting on or off tramcars. For smne reason the Government, while allowing this by-law to be adopted in Scotland, tin's hitherto put its ban upon the desire of English cities to take the same precaution in the interests of the travellers by their tram-cars and pedestrians generally. Anti-Colour Bar Council Formed As the outcome of a conference convened last year by the Society of Friends to consider the growth of colour prejudice in Great Britain a meeting was held at Friends' House this evening at which a "joint council to promote understanding between white and coloured people in Great Britain" was formed. Among members of its executive will be Mr. C.

Roden Buxton, Miss Winifred Hcltby, Mr. James Aiman, of the Indian Students' Hostel Mr. H. S. L.

Polak, the friend of Mr. Gandhi and Mr. C. F. Andrews, Dr.

Harold Moody, Peckhara's popular West Indian doctor: Mr. Barbour James, of West Africa; Mr.W. F. Nicholson, secretary of the Society of Friends and Mr. Warren Scott, an American negro who is a btudent Christian Movement secretary.

Mr. John P. Fletcher, who has been acting as secretary of the temporary committee, said that the aim of the council would be to deal quietlv with specific cases of colour bar prejudice in England. It was proposed to draw up what might literally be a "black list," but was really a white list, of hotels and boarding-houses where people of colour could stay. The need ot such a list was increasingly neces sary.

A survey recently made in one street in Bloomsbury showed that fourteen out of fifteen boarding-houses refused guests of colour. They declared the objection was not their own but was raised by white boarders. A case of colour prejudice on the part of a Toe official had occurred but had been satisfactorily settled, but in the case of two Quaker ladies who had been refused permission to have a cultured coloured lady to a meal with them in their hotel the only satisfaction received was a letter saying that permission might be given in future if the directors were written to beforehand. Among those present at the discussion was Miss Maude Royden, still bearing traces of her breakdown. She seconded tbe resolution forming the.

council. The Thirteen-Month Year According to a message from America many firms there have adopted the use of the thirteen-month calendar. A reform of the calendar so as to smooth out its irreeularities has of course, strong backing among, busi ness men in many countries, it is one of the matters of international imoort ance -Which is engaging the attention Of the League of Nations, and was first discussed at ueneva some years aao. So far no agreement has been reached amone the advocates of the various schemes of reform. By way of preparing the Way for a further attempt to agree ib was decided to set up committees pt inquiry- in -many In this Country one of these national committees has-been work for some timeV Its ahairman is, Lord Burnhani, and it includes Sir Stahlev Machin, Sir Herbert Walker, and other business men, as well as tee Astronomer Royal.

The ideas 6f all these committees will come before- the 'next conference of the organisation of the League in October. The arrangement which hac been apparently adopted by companies in the United States, chiefly for bdok- keenine "DllTTVCl frtr t.hft infernal nao in taeir businesses, divides the year into to the Chinese yesterday. (4) The Alternative Vote The Government should feel flattered by the amount of attention which is being paid to its Electoral Reform Bill, and especially to the merits and demerits of the alternative vote. For nobody supposes that the House of Lords will accept the alternative vote, and the' hullaballoo which has been raised in the Conservative press about the rigging of the next elections implies an expectation (or at least a fear) that the Government may live long enough to carry the Bill under the Parliament Act that is, in 'some two years. It may be doubted whether Ministers themselves share this expectation.

Nevertheless electoral reform is of sufficient imoortance in itself to deserve serious consideration. It is a matter not only of abstract justice but of practical expediency. Conservative critics, indeed, appear to think that the scheme is not only practical but sharp practice a dodge to help the Labour and Liberal parties. It would be absurd to suppose that Labour and Liberal politicians have not carefully considered what would be likely to be the practical effect of the alternative vote upon their parties. Their trouble is that they cannot find out.

We have ourselves tried to make as impartial an inquiry into the matter as we could, and the Becond of two articles on the subject appears this morning. But no precision is claimed for the figures suggested no prediction is made. All that has been or could be done was to make an estimate of the strength of the swing in favour of the Conservative party and of the proportions in which the different parties would, under the alternative vote, allocate their second preferences to other parties. These two estimates represent at best only a mean of informed guesswork. If they are correct the further calculation as to their effect upon relative party strengths can easily be made.

On the assumptions made in the article the effect of the alternative vote in reducing Conservative representation in the House of Commons would be considerable. But a comparatively slight alteration in the estimated proportions of transferred votes would produce quite different results. If it is true that the Liberal and Labour parties are trying to rig the elections, then it is clear that they are not very good at the game. They could take a useful lesson from France, for example, where the art of making elections is better understood. The results of the alternative vote are so incalculable that no party anxious to improve its position would think of resorting to so uncertain an expedient'.

Another lesson which emerges from the calculations is that if a wave of feeling in favour of any one party swept over the. country that party would have no difficulty under the alternative vote in obtaining an independent majority of its own. If the swing in favour of Conservatism has gone as far as most Conservatives profess, the alternative vote will not rob them of victory. That, of course, is as it should be. There is nothing in the alternative vote to prevent a majority in the country from being represented by a majority in the House of Commons.

The doubt rather is whether there is anything in it to lessen the existing probability that a minority in the country will be represented by a majority in the House of Commons. The answer appears to be that it is likely to do something, though not necessarily very much. It is possible, for instance, that even under the alternative vote a large Protectionist majority might be returned to the House of Commons, although a majority of the country were in favour of Free Trade. Whether this happened or not would chiefly depend upon how far the tariff question decided the choice of second candidates. It is natural to suppose that those who, for instance, voted Liberal or Labour on general grounds of party loyalty and belief would, if they cared deeply about the tariff issue, cast their second votes exclusively in favour of the other candidate who expressed their views on this question.

If the general feeling of the country is as strongly Free Trade as Liberals believe, then the alternative vote would have a real effect in preventing the return of a Protectionist (minority) Government. And, again, very properly so. The uncertainty about the working of the alternative is mainly due to our ignorance as to what will decide the giving of second preferences. Presumably what decide the second preferences are the secondary issues; but they may be very important for all that Obviously, the alternative vote cannot ensure in the House of Commons an accurate representation of political opinion in the country, but it does allow the electorate a greater scope fdf the exercise of political judgment And that iB not a bad thing, even if we cannot be quite sure how it would affect party strengths. The alternative V6te would leave the main defect of the present system unaffected that is, fee fact that each ebnstitu ency is represented byJ only one member1 and call, therefore, only reflect the views of one party.

Even Under the alternative Vote the House of Cdmmohs would, in the extreme case, contain no single representative of political views which in the country obtained 49 per cent of the votes cast in every constituency; Representation in the House of Commons, under the alternative vote, would still depend not upon the strength of political opinions in the country' so much as the accident of their geographical thg minorities in each constituency PROTECT YOUR CAR AND GARAGE WITH MERRYWEATHERS' and 'FIRE SUDS' FIRE EXTINGUISHERS For Illustrated Price Lists write MERRYWEATHER SONS 63, LONG ACRE, W.C.2, LONDON LEVESON BABY CARS Euilt by John Ward Ltd. Old Colony House, SOUTH KING ST JOHN NESBITT, LIMITED. 42. MARKET STREET. MANCHESTER.

BEST QUALITY STAINLESS STEEL CUTLERY. ELECTRO PLATED NICKEL SILVER. SETS OF CARVERS. CASES, AND CANTEENS. THE GUAMBIAN MANCHESTER, FRIDAY, January 16, 1931 TO-DAY'S PAPER SPECIAL ARTICLES After 30 Years 16 Alternative Vote Effect on Next Election 9 Round-table Conference 3 A Hospital for Locomotives Halle Conceit 11 Contemporary Music Centre 7 New English Music Obituary Spain's "Gaoled The Health of the Transport Driver Gramophone Music The Philosophical Sex Patchwork Quilts 8 4 6 A Bookman's Notes 5 Hook Reviews 5 Wireless Programmes 10 CORRESPONDENCE Industrial Peace (Sir D.

M. Stevenson) 16 Education Costs 16 Native Policy in Africa (Mr. F. Horrabin and others). 16 Saving and Spending (Mr.

V. S. Roe and others) 16 Safeguarding and Prices (Mr. W. A.

Wells) 16 Mental Illness and Lunacy (Mr. F. J. White) 16 Russia and Forced Labour (Mr. S.

R. Chandler) 16 The Halle Concerts (Mr. A. JS 11 SPORT on page 3 COMMERCIAL-INDEX on page 15 HOME The General Council of the Weavers' Amalgamation yesterday refused to empower its Executive to negotiate on tho more-looms-to-a-weaver question, and decided to take a ballot. The crucial question now is whether the employers, who meet this morning, will suspend the general lock-out notices until the result of the ballot is known.

(9) Coal peace is in sight, and it is possible that work will be resumed in South Wales on Sunday and Monday. Compromise proposals for a settlement were signed last night; the miners gain their point on hours and the owners gain theirs on the right to have wages settled by local arbitration. (9) The India Bound-table Conference sat in committee yesterday to hear the report of the Federal Structure Sub-committee. The Lord Chancellor1 made a strong appeal to India to give the new Constitution time to grow, and Lord Reading gave assurances that the proposed safeguards on finance were not intended to enable England to overrule Indian opinion. (0 3) The Government have decided to give no assistance, direct or indirect, to the British entry lor this year's Schneider Trophy race or in the organisation of the contest itself.

The committee of the Royal Aero Club is feting called immediately to consider the situation. (9) Polling takes place in the East Bristol by-election to-day, and it is expected that the result will be declared about midnight. (15) In case in the High Court yesterday concerning the claim of a passenger, who had a cheap ticket, for damages against a railway company for personal injury, it was held that the company's disclaimer of liability on the back of the ticket held good, although the passenger had not specifically asked for a cheap ticket. (6) A number of London clergy discussed spiritualism at a private meeting yesterday. (4) Sir Robert Wallace, K.C., who is 60 ears of age, retired from the chairmanship of the London Sessions yesterday.

Tributes paid to him emphasised the lead he gave to the country in working the Probation of Offenders Act. (16) Professor Elliot Smith lectured in London yesterday on. the Peking skull, and compared it with the skulls of other primitive men (4) The possibility of a sweepstake abroad, in aid of the British hospitals is still under consideration. (7) FOREIGN The French Chamber yesterday decided by twelve votes that two imprisoned Communist deputies should be rf leased. (4) Our Paris correspondent shows from the Paris press that there is a general impression, based upon Mr.

Henderson's interview with Briand and other freoent incidents, that the Entente Cordials is making good recovery. (4) Our Moscow correspondent; states that the. Soviet representatives have presented a note to the Foreign Offices of Great Britain and League Powers complaining of the Chairman's "rudeness" to the Soviet delegate at the preliminary, disaftnaaUnt' confer- neighbours as do they from hers. We may well accept thks protestation of innocence, for it is as much to the advantage of Russia as of any nation to keep to her own wave-lengths and so safeguard the harmonious ringing of the European welkin. There is, no doubt, Something Olympian in the notion of an ethereal contest in which Stalin "attempts to shout down Mussolini oa the same wave-length, with an occasional bellow from Pilsudski intervening.

But luckily for amicable relations wireless is not like that. The ether refuses to be turned into a public meeting, and to be heard at all its users must cleave closelv to the narrow strips allotted to each for the purpose. Even with the best intentions all round, overlapping and blanketing are bound to occur. but, as the Soviet Government out, tho development of technical appliances tends steadily to minimise confusion. It is not likely that Russia or any otter country will consciously attempt to increase it.

A Flourishing Trade Though trade generally is in a lamentable state in America, rac kets" continue to boom. At least those evidences of the existence of racketeers murder and continual public revelations as to the extent of their activitie's appear regularly in the news. For instance, yesterday a gangster, described as having so tender a nature that he undertook the management of Al Capone's soup kitchens for the unemployed, was shot at from a passing motor-car and killed. Such incidents are of almost daily Occurrence. But though the gangsters prey upon one another in this way, their numbers do not appear to diminish, perhaps because their trade is so lucrative.

Apart from their exploitation of ordinary vice speakeasies and brothels, they squeeze considerable gain from legitimate business. The labourer must pay them so much if he is to continue unmolested at his job the small tradesman who refuses to contribute to the upkeep of the racket industry has his premises destroyed, his sTock looted even the very poor are taxed according to their means, and bankers and film stars find it necessary to keep private guards for fear ot being kidnapped. The astonishing thing is that all this is well known in America. But corruption amongst the officers of justice makes its prevention next to impossible. People have so little confidence in the power of tho police to protect them that they prefer to submit to the racketeers.

The investigations carried out by District Attorney Cains in New York and the evidence given by those gangsters and police spies who have dared to come forward have revealed a deplorable state of affair. While New York was thus investigating, Chicago did manage to get one gangster of international fame into the dock. He was charged, however, not with murder or even robbery, as might have been expected, but with making false income tax leturns. In defence he pleaded that since his income was gained by illicit means, from the noint of view of the State it could not be said to exist. Chicago will tolerate many things, but not logic.

The man was convicted. Golf Without the Drive It is reported that various English professional golfers have expressed their approval of a scheme for an "open championship" which will consist of putting and approaching approval which, it is to be feared, embodies merely another indication of the gulf which separates the compe-tiant professional from the ordinary amateur. For the average Saturday afternoon player golf without the drive would be like "Hamlet" without the Ghost and without the Prince of Denmark as well. There are thousands and thousands of golfers who might only too truly remark, "Who steals my putt steals trash, but he that filches from me my good drive "robs me of the real excuse for my "continued appearance on the links." Most poor players think that the drive is the best part of their game and, out of a poor choice, it usually is. It almost invariably gets the ball farther than any other shot; and, if it does not invariably keep it straighter, it is something to have "shot an arrow, I know hot where," and that something is better than to have fluffed it into the nearest bunker.

There much virtue in a drive even" though it counts for no mote than a six-inch putt. It puts a man on good terms with himself; "After all," he thinks, as he follows it down the fairway, "it is a man's business to hit 'em and not "coax ein. This mashie lets me down "three times out of five, but that's all "a matter of knack. Yoa want more '-than knack in the, drive you've got "to have the beef as well." So he goes on hie wajf purring, and careless of the point that he owes much 6f his drive to the fact that he Allowed to arrange its lie to his own liking. It is obvious that such players not be found impeding the earlier rounds for this new open championship no subtler method could have been devised for eliminating the rabbits'" and leaving the coarse free-for the "tigers." But it will be shrewd enough test for the professionals whose drives are almost a matter of mathematics.

With them the obvious art begins when the mashie and mid-iron perform their miracles of accuracy. 404 control, has been for the past two days busily engaged at the offices of the Overseas Trade Department in interviewing manulacturers and merchants interested the export of British goods to the Irish Free State. Mr. Peters takes a stronar oersonal interest in his work, which, as he points out, is the oldest kind of overseas trade that the United Kingdom possesses, jne insn state comes fifth in the list of our customers, and in one or two respects, notably motor cars, is our best customer. The trade is a stable one.

There is not the same opportunity for expansion as there is in the case of new countries, though there are possibilities ot development. For instance, the Shannon scheme must in the long run mean a considerable increase in the trade in electrical equipment. Still, at the present time 90 per cent of the free btate imports are from the United Kingdom, which is the Free State's best customer, the live-stock trade from Ireland being the. biggest between any two countries in the world. The Salvation Army Bill Some Salvation Army officers Seem to be doubtful about their right to express disapproval of the Salvation Army Bill if they were of a mind to do so, so General Higgins has to-day sent a letter to every officer in Great Britain stating that they have full liberty to express their viewB on the matter provided that such opinions are sent direct to the General on a form suDDlied bv headauarters.

This course has been taken as a result of allegations that the bill is presented without its contents being properly known to the soldiers and lower ranks of the organisation. It has been said, for instance, by several members 01 Parliament that the bill has only been considered by a small group of the highest grade of officers aim mat mere nas Deen no leai criticism of its orovisions. Three oromi nent Salvation Army officers, two of whom signed the requisition for the calling of the High. Council, have declared their intention of presenting a petition against the bill. I stated on Tuesday night that Sir John Simon had promised to eupport the bill.

My information, I find, was not correct. Sir John Simon is quite uncommitted about this bill, and has not had any consultation with General riiggms on the subject. NEW ENGLISH MUSIC London, Thubsday. The Federation of Music Clubs gave the third festival connected with their annual meeting at the Grotrian Hall to-day. They secured a good deal of new musics and many distinguished artists for their two concertB, held at eleven o'clock and three o'clock, the second of which only can be discussed here.

Mr. Philin Levi began with a performance of a prelude and fugue for piano written by himself. It was an enormously long abstraction, from which one could not get much more-than a feeling of earnest search after expression in a new atonal medium. The fugue, however, remains much more eUarly impressed one one's memory than the prelude, which seems to prove that the discipline of a definite structural scheme is good for a composer who has landed himself in experiments. Five song3 by Gerald Find, settings of poems by Thomas Hardy, made their mark in Mr.

John Armstrong's sensitive interpretation. Hardy's flinty verse is extremely difficult to match with music, but Mr. Finzi generally does it quite as well as could be expected, and sometimes a gcorl deal better. Miss Helen Perkin played two new piano pieces by John Ireland in a wayward manner which one may take to be that composer's ideal, though it was quite unsuitcd to Pasquini's "Cuckoo TGecata a moment earlier. Both these pieces have a way of cneating expectation from point to point that is at Once tantalising and fascinating.

The surprises are the greater because the style of the whole composition is unmis takably Ireland's. February's Child has a coaxing and elusive quality, with a touch of bleakness, while the "Aubade" is a piping and trumpeting of fanfareB as from the four corners of heaven. After a group 01 urceii songs, sung Miss lsobelBaillie, who was accompanied by Hr. Gerald Moore, and Arnold Bax's beautiful Sonata for Flute and Harp (Mr. Joseph Slater and Miss Gwendolen Mason), which has been heard before, a set of variations for two pianos by Cyril Scott came as the final item.

The composer pleaded for them most eloquently with Miss Esther Fisher. The work is planned on a large scale, and this, no doubt, forced Mf. Scott, who is known too exclusively as a miniaturist, to express himself in some- imug very oinerem irom nu laroiliar vein. He not only writes well for a great danger of which is thickness of sound and mechanical performance, but can rise to feats of sustained musical reasoning True, a good deal of the music is in the nature of padding, but at least Mr. Scott ctiuna miner it up in the right LtLY LANGTRY'S DAUGHTER "With a view to studying women's needs in restaurants -Lady fan Malcolm, wife of air ian a former SI.P., has joined the board of a restaurant in Haymafket.

Lady Malcolm, who is a daughter of-the late Lady de Bathe (lily langtry). stated yesterday that she felt very that the interests of women, required inore coa- uuc-auuu 111 resxaurani me. A Womeh of nil ma business in greater numbers every day." she continued, 7 and they don't want to par enormous tonces far maai tv, ax-l want. One of my first, tasks will be to inaugurate 4 luncheon at moderate prices 5 tho special benefit of.